Chapter 147: ¹⁴⁷: problem

Chapter 147: 1??: problem

As soon as I came back downstairs into the living room, I stopped in my tracks. Someone was cooking, the smell had already spread throughout the house, filling the living room with a familiar warmth. I immediately recognized it, and my eyes widened slightly.

It smelled remarkably similar to Kael’s cooking. And then I almost laughed at myself. Obviously it would be him. Other than me, who else would be here?

Without waiting any longer, I quickly headed toward the kitchen, and as soon as I reached the doorway, my suspicion was confirmed.

Kael was standing in front of the stove, effortlessly flipping the food in the pan before lowering it back onto the heat. He seemed completely at ease, as though he hadn’t been gone for days and hadn’t left me wondering when he would finally return. Then his gaze shifted toward me, his cold eyes met mine.

I immediately slowed down, eventually stopping right in my tracks. "You came already?" I whispered and just as I did for some reason, the way he was looking at me made me feel as though I had done something terribly wrong.

I searched his expression, trying to figure out what had caused it. Did he not like that I asked why he was here already? Maybe that was it because this was his home too. He had every right to come here whenever he wanted.

"I...I mean..." I stumbled over my words under his continued stare. "I had thought you would be here in the evening." I took another hesitant step toward him, refusing to look away even though his expression was making me increasingly uncomfortably worried.

"I didn’t mean to offend you. This is your place, after all. You can come whenever you want."

Kael remained silent throughout and that silence somehow made the situation even more awkward. I shifted my weight slightly, waiting for him to say something.

"Ah... Kael!" I let out a yelp because before I could figure out what else to say, he had suddenly stepped closer, and pulled me into him, his left arm winding around my waist, leaving me with barely any room to continue my explanation.

My breath caught while his expression remained unreadable as his attention moved briefly to my lips before returning to my eyes. I wasn’t sure what exactly had changed, but the atmosphere between us suddenly felt different from what I had expected.

"Don’t... don’t you have to tend to the food you’re cooking?" I asked, glancing toward the stove. My voice sounded much less confident than I wanted it to.

I again waited for him to say something but Kael still didn’t answer. The silence just stretched between us.

After he had left me that day following everything that had happened, I had spent all these days telling myself that when he eventually returned, I would simply continue behaving around him as I always had.

There was no reason for me to act differently. But now that he was actually standing in front of me again, I couldn’t seem to make myself follow that plan.

Something felt strange, it wasn’t exactly fear.

At least, I didn’t think it was or I wouldn’t exactly call it that. It was an unfamiliar nervousness that I couldn’t properly explain, and the longer Kael remained silent, the more noticeable it became.

"Why aren’t you saying anything?" I finally asked while I swallowed nervously, waiting for his response.

He didn’t respond imidately. Instead, his eyes moved over me once again. "Do you go around the house dressed like this every day when I’m not around?" he asked.

I looked down at myself, suddenly remembering that I was still wearing the clothes I had changed into after returning from the academy.

"I..." I hesitated before answering because Kael moved his face closer, burrying it into my neck and making me arch my neck on my own while I heard a little sound of snap behind me from him turning the gas off.

"These are my comfortable clothes," I explained, my hands curling around his shirt near his back while trying to ground myself from the feeling he was giving me by moving his lips closer to my skin.. "I wear them at home."

"I had thought you would come in the evening, and I would change before then. That’s why, ah..." My explanation faltered when Kael suddenly bit my earlobe inturrepting me in between as my mind shortcircuited, leaving me momentarily speechless.

The faint scent of rain and cold air clung to him, a reminder that he had come directly from outside. I became painfully aware of everything at once: the loose fabric of my dress, the way my hair had fallen over one shoulder, and the fact that I had been standing there barefoot on the polished floor.

"I can go change if you don’t like it," I offered after a moment, feeling increasingly nervous as his hands moved along the curve of my back while his lips moved to my neck in an overwhelmingly slow pace.

"You don’t have to change," he whispered quietly against my skin, his warm breath along with his raspy voice making goosebumps crawl on my skin.There was just something in his voice that made me pause.

"I like you like this. You look so..." He stopped right there. I waited for him to finish, wanting him to complete what he was about to say but he didn’t.

Instead, he moved his right hand again, right under my flimsy thin shirt, I unconsciously yelped as his cold hand moved on my skin, his fingers caressing my back.

"Kael, it’s still the afternoon," I finally said, struggling as his lips moved from my neck to my shoulder, the kissing turning into gentle sucking now. "Shouldn’t we have lunch for now and then maybe talk for a while?"

He remained silent. His lips not stopping for even a second, and I found myself wondering whether he had even heard me.

The silence between us made me even more conscious of how tense I had suddenly become.

I didn’t understand why I was reacting this way. After he had left me that day, I had spent all these days telling myself that I would behave around him as I always had when he returned. I wasn’t supposed to feel this nervous simply because he was standing in front of me.

I had imagined this moment countless times. In every version, I had been calm, composed, and completely unaffected by his return. I had planned what I would say and how I would look at him. I had promised myself that I would not allow old insecure feelings to surface.

I had promised myself that I will not let the guilt of not being able to become a mother ever restain myself, I had promised to myself and all the people who matterd to me now that I will never let this fact restrain myself.

I had thought I had kept this feeling of guilt burried inside me and I would never let it surface again but the moment Kael had asked me those words right in this same house those layers of dirt I had pit on this guilt had flew away like nothing.

Now the moment I looked at Kael all I could think of was that the only thing I had to at least give to him according to our deal would never be in my reach, I had thought I would never care about what Kale ever wants that I would just use him for what I want, what I want to know and then just keave but now I was feeling this strange guilt.

Or maybe this was just a strange feeling of not being able to have something that I might want somewhere in my life.

No...I couldn’t let these feeling surface again, no I had promised myself! No..No.. Yet here I was, struggling to even maintain my composure.

" Ahh..Kael!" I screamed when he suddenly just bit into my shoulder bone, the pain throwing a chill through my spine as I moved my hand back to grasp the counter for some support while breathing heavily to steady the desperate thoughts that were coming into my mind.

"You used to be so know-it-all in the beginning." Kael asked making my eyes widened at the sudden comment. "Why are you trembling by just a mere touch of mine now, Athena Moonvel?"

He moved his face back, his eyes meeting mine, the coldness in them making me question the feelings I was getting just some seconds ago by just having him so close to me.

His question had caught me completely off guard. I stared at him, unable to immediately come up with an answer. My fingers curled against the edge of the counter. Only then did I realize that he was right. My fingers were shaking, though I had been trying so hard to keep them still.

There was also a strange sharpness in his gaze now, as though he had noticed something I had been desperately trying to hide from myself. "When did you change so much, Athena Moonvel?"

I remained silent. The sound of my name on his lips made my chest tighten. It was the same way he had always said it, yet somehow it felt different now; more deliberate, more intimate, and far more dangerous than I remembered.

Kael took a small step back, giving me more space. "The girl who used to be brave enough to tell me exactly what she wanted and say everything straight to my face..."

His voice became quieter. "And now you hesitate even when you want to tell me that you don’t want something."

I looked at him in shock. His words struck somewhere deeper than I expected. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

He wasn’t wrong. That was the part I didn’t know how to answer. I had planned to always be straightforward with him. I had planned to make him think that whatever I thought, whatever I wanted to say, I would never be particularly good at hiding it.

So why was it different now? Why did I suddenly find myself second-guessing every word? Was it because I was afraid of what he might see if I spoke honestly? Or was I afraid of the guilt tgat had suddenly surfaced?

Kael’s gaze remained fixed on me for another moment before he finally moved farther away. The sudden distance should have made me feel relieved. Instead, I was left with a strange emptiness that I couldn’t explain.